Dance With Horses and Feel Good!
by Arla Christensen

Dance With Horses is a fun and unique program that is good for people of all ages, especially children. The program is based on the concept that humans receive emotional benefits from horses and horses receive emotional benefits from humans. However, the unique twist to this program is that the individual has a relationship with the horse without riding it. From our many experiences with the program we have discovered that its benefits to humans are many: it increases self-esteem, patience, confidence, creative thinking, and problem solving skills, and at the same time it educates humans about horses.

The participant begins the "dance with horses" by watching how the horse herd operates - observing the hierarchy and the consequences of each horse's actions. In the case of children they can easily see that there are rules in the horse world which are the same as in their own world. For example, disrespect is not tolerated and the consequence for such an action is very visual within the herd. In the case of children, we like to help them relate this kind of behaviour to their family, school, and community environments, and what the consequences are in our human society.

In the next step the child or adult begins a relationship with an individual horse. They then transfer the relationship skills they have learned with the first horse to relationships with other horses. They soon see that expressions of fear, aggression, and anger do not work in their relationships with the horses in the same way they do not work in their relationships with humans. With this in mind the participants learn how to take ownership of their feelings and their actions. It is interesting to note that the more sensitive horses tend to keep the participants more challenged.

The relationship with any horse always begins on the ground. Touching and kind voice commands are the first steps to bonding with a horse. Bonding produces trust and trust produces respect. Kindness and respect in one's body language and voice enables a participant to develop a much better relationship with a horse, or a human, than using anger, aggression, fear, and force.

By the end of eight weeks the children or adults have established relationships with several horses of various ages and personalities, and of both genders. Interestingly, children are usually more creative than adults in how they think a particular horse can be encouraged to follow them through an obstacle course without a lead or a halter. A child understands that even a step or two, with the horse following because it wants to be with the child, is a real accomplishment in the building of their relationship. In most instances the children think they are just having fun, but their parents tell us they see many positive changes in them. It seems to be the case where, "Everyone wins!"

Medicine Horse is a therapeutic program based on the same principles as Dance With Horses but with more emphasis on promoting positive behaviour modification in the participants. It is especially designed for use by counsellors, elders, therapists, and social workers. It helps individuals (of all ages) to move away from self-defeating patterns and enables them to make positive changes by helping them reestablish themselves as responsible members of society.

Our vision for the healing work of the Dance With Horses and Medicine Horse programs is that once they are established at our location near Vanscoy, SK, then we plan to expand them to other areas of the province, hoping that individuals and communities will recognize the enormous benefits in them and will thus feel moved to set-up and run their own programs. Volunteers and partners to help with all aspects — funding, statistics, research, mail-outs, etc. — of the programs will be greatly welcomed.

Dance With Horses and Medicine Horse programs are held at TLC Performance Arabians located near Vanscoy, SK. They are beneficial for: children, families, teachers, parents, youth-at-risk, stressed professionals, corporate teams, and many others. For registration or information email: dancewithhorse2000@yahoo.ca, phone (306) 493-3004, fax (306) 493-2418, or write to Box 8012, Saskatoon, SK S7K 4R6. Both programs are open for September 2003 registrations. They are looking for facilities & volunteers — please contact TLC.